Nintendo today confirmed earlier rumors by announcing a Cobalt/Black version of the DS Lite, which the comapny describes as "like a black T-shirt with a splash of color." The dark blue color marks the seventh shade the system has received since its inception, and stands as the next logical step on the color wheel following Polar White, Coral Pink, Onyx, Crimson/Black, and the limited-edition Gold and Metallic Rose. The newly painted systems will hit stores on February 10th.

The games industry managed record sales of $17.9bn in 2007, up 43% from $12.5bn in 2006. The Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 all saw their most successful sales figures in December, shifting a total of 1.4m, 1.3m and 800,000 units respectively, meaning that the Xbox 360 has now sold 8.5m units since its launch, the Wii 6.3m and the PS3 2.8m. However, the best selling console over Christmas was actually the Nintendo DS, which achieved sales figures of 2.5m in December. Meanwhile, the most successful game last year was Halo 3, which sold 4.82m copies, with Wii Play in second place on 4.12m and Call of Duty 4 in third on 3.04m.

The Nintendo DS Lite has officially earned a place among the United Kingdom's greatest consoles: in one week, it sold more units than any other console in the past. An incredible 191,000 units were sold last week, beating the previous champion, the Sony PlayStation Portable, by 3,000 units (188,000). Mario Party DS may have contributed to the record-breaking sales.